Re: [Pen-l] the Good Depression?

["Jim Devine" <jdevine03@xxxxxxxxx>]

Carrol Cox wrote:
> "World War" was probably a eurocentric misnomer for 1914-1918 war, and
> even the second war touched lightly if at all on most of Latin America
> and much of Africa.

It's only a European war if we focus only on casualties. It did
involve areas outside of Europe, especially Africa. What started as a
scramble for Africa, for coaling stations for naval ships (in the
Pacific, among other places), and for guano supplies "bounced back" in
the form of hot war in its place of origins (Europe). It also involved
the US and Japan (on and off). After the war, a lot of scores were
settled in the third world (like reassigning German colonies to other
countries).

The Cold War > was also a continuation of the encirclement of the SU
> begun in 1918 -- but that was secondary. Do you think the Soviets (under
> any of its leaders, Stalin through Gomulka) really wanted the conflict?

I don't think that Soviet decisions were simply made by the political
elite. They had their own military-industrial complex, though it was
not as aggressive (profit-seeking) as is our capitalist one. The whole
country was run by a party/state bureaucracy, which had an influence
on elite decisions and their ability to institute those decisions in
practice.

Further, I think that, starting in 1918 or so, antagonism toward the
so-called "West" became built into the the very fiber of the
state/party bureaucracy. Of course, a lot of that antagonism was
totally justified (I just finished Upton Sinclair's book OIL!) But at
some point, war became less and less of a necessary evil and more and
more of a way of life that could not be seen beyond. After all, just
as the US elite and its minions helped maintain stability by claiming
"we're better than those godless communists," the old Soviet Union's
system did the same by claiming superiority (on issues of racism and
unemployment, for example). There was some truth in both sides'
claims, but the point is that each side used antagonism toward the
other as part of social control.
-- 
Jim Devine / "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own
way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante.
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